Bible

Tome used to swear in governors may not have been Sam Houston's

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George W. Bush called it Sam Houston's Bible. Rick Perry swore on its centuries-old sheepskin four times. And today, Texas Gov.-elect Greg Abbott will lay his hand on the historic tome to take the oath of office. But archivists now say it's possible that Texas governors have...
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Researchers say Mark fragment pre-dates 90AD

(Newser) -
Ancients apparently used various papyrus documents to create mummy masks—including what may be the earliest known fragment of a New Testament gospel, LiveScience reports. Confirming information that leaked in 2012, professor Craig Evans says he's among the researchers who peeled apart the glued layers of a mummy mask...
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Discovery bolsters theory of Iron Age kingdoms

(Newser) -
Kings David and Solomon may be memorable figures from the Bible, but plenty of scholars think they were mere figments of somebody's imagination. One big reason is that the archaeological record doesn't mesh: These two supposedly ruled in the 10th-century BC, but where's the physical evidence? Now,...
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Gamers in Australia start petition after retailers ban 'GTA V'

(Newser) -
Some big retailers in Australia aren't stocking Grand Theft Auto V on the grounds that it's misogynistic and sends a bad message to kids. As a result, gamers have started a petition of their own to stop sales of the Bible—on the grounds that it's misogynistic...
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It was a cherished gift from her late father

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A little sleuthing and a little luck has resulted in a Tennessee woman getting back a Bible she lost in 1972. But as the Tennessean explains, it wasn't just any Bible to Deborah Savely. Her dad had given it to her as a girl a decade previously, and he...
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One that will 'better integrate with Chinese culture,' says an official

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The number of Christians in China is on the rise, a fact that's making the country's control-freak atheistic government quite nervous and causing tensions between police and worshipers. To address this issue, state media reports that China is creating its own Christian-based theology that will conform more closely...
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Critics fear project is attempt to influence Congress

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Fresh from winning their battle against ObamaCare's birth control mandate , the evangelical Christian family behind Hobby Lobby has a new project: A huge museum in Washington, DC, devoted to the Bible. Steve Green, president of the chain of craft stores and son of its founder, has spent tens of...
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Investigators say Ohio man staged gang attack

(Newser) -
Ohio bus driver Rickey Wagoner wasn't really saved by his Bible in a supposed Feb. 24 gang attack, police say—but he probably does need some kind of help. Investigators now believe the Dayton driver staged the attack by stabbing himself, shooting himself in the arm, and firing two...
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'God never told me to stop,' suspect's note reads

(Newser) -
A Florida woman is facing murder charges in a slaying that she suggested was partially motivated by the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, authorities say. Kimberly Lucas, 40, allegedly killed her ex-partner's 2-year-old daughter, and then unsuccessfully tried to kill both the girl's 10-year-old brother and herself,...
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Reports fuel Israel-Palestine controversy

(Newser) -
An Israeli archaeologist says he's discovered a citadel once captured by the Biblical King David, fueling controversy over his methods and the Israel-Palestine divide. "The whole site we can compare to the Bible perfectly," Eli Shukron says of the find, which emerged in a dig that started...
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An employee's search turns up NJ descendant

(Newser) -
A centuries-old heirloom Bible has found its way back into family hands thanks to a dedicated Goodwill employee. After the 1812 Bible, originally published in England, turned up in a box of donations at a Denver location, Goodwill's Chief People Officer Joyce Schlose knew she had to track down...
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Experts will unravel, analyze the tiny parchments

(Newser) -
They may be small, but they're still Dead Sea Scrolls—and no one knows what they contain. An Israeli scholar has discovered nine tiny parchments amid the thousands of world-famous scrolls and scroll fragments that date back to the second century BCE, the Times of Israel reports. Dr. Yonatan...
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Police say there was 'some kind of intervention'

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Cops say "some kind of intervention" saved a bus driver in Dayton, Ohio, who was shot three times in an apparently random attack yesterday. Ricky Wagoner, 49, had a religious text called "The Message"—a modern translation of the New Testament—in his front pocket, which stopped...
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Study: It was written much later than the events it describes

(Newser) -
A set of bones—and not human ones, at that—is "challenging the Bible's historicity," say two Tel-Aviv University researchers. Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef and Dr. Lidar Sapir-Hen have carbon-dated the oldest known domesticated camel bones found in the southern Levant, where Israel sits, and what they discovered...
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Ancient 'Ophel inscription' could prove the story of King Solomon

(Newser) -
An ancient pottery shard seems to support the Biblical story of King Solomon and shows he was running a pretty complex operation 3,000 years ago—at least according to one Israeli scholar. "We are dealing here with real kings, and the kingdom of David and Solomon was a...
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The boat was round, says expert at the British Museum

(Newser) -
Anyone seeking alternate versions of the Noah's Ark tale need look no further than Babylonian cuneiform tablets. One, discovered in 1872, pre-dated the Bible and told its own Ark story. Now a tablet has arrived at the British Museum that actually describes how to build the ark, according to...
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Hardliners are interpreting it incorrectly: Elissa Strauss

(Newser) -
If there's one thing we've learned from all the controversy surrounding ObamaCare, it's that the Bible is against birth control —right? Actually, not so much, writes Elissa Strauss in Salon . In truth, the Bible makes "both direct references and thinly veiled allusions to women using...
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Pastor spotted it, raised a stink

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Costco is trying to wriggle out of an inadvertent theological debate it entered this week with an apology. The flap began when a pastor in California's Simi Valley spotted a Bible for sale with a label of "fiction," reports the LA Times . After Caleb Kaltenbach's resulting...
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German man's conscience finally got the best of him

(Newser) -
A church in England got an unusual package in the mail recently—a 200-year-old Bible stolen 42 years ago. It seems the thief was a German man who took an English language course in the East Sussex church, but he found the class to be a useless waste of money,...
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Site unveiled near Jerusalem

(Newser) -
Archaeologists have made a discovery of Biblical proportions: They say newly excavated ruins near Jerusalem are "the best example to date of the uncovered fortress city of King David." Extensive digging has unveiled a pair of structures, one of which may have been a palace belonging to the...
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